Ann Romney's horse, Rafalca, and her Olympic dressage rivals

It's sometimes called "horse dancing" or "horse ballet" but that doesn't mean it's not seriously competitive. The United States’ dressage team — which features the horse Ann Romney co-owns, Rafalca — will face off against nine other nations (each country has three horses on its team) in a quest for the gold team medal at the London 2012 Olympics. The team medals will be decided from the combined results of both the Grand Prix on Aug. 2-3 and the Grand Prix Special on Aug. 7.
By Mackenzie Weinger and Alysha Love

Ravel

Digby

Rider: Nathalie Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein.
Country: Denmark.
Fun fact: Digby’s trainer, Krya Kyrklund, told Eurodressage.com last year that Digby “knows he’s the king of the stable,” but noted “he has a very good walk, very good canter, but the trot is not so fancy.”

Mistral Hojris

Rider: Laura Bechtolsheimer.
Country: Great Britain.
Fun fact: Currently ranked second in the world, according to the FEI World Individual Dressage Ranking.

Valegro

Rider: Charlotte Dujardin.
Country: Great Britain.
Fun fact: The formidable duo hold the world record in the Grand Prix Special, with the score of 88.022 percent they set in April 2012.

Jerich Parzival

Rider: Adelinde Cornelissen.
Country: Netherlands.
Fun fact: The pair is ranked No. 1 in the world, and they are also two-time defending World Cup champions.

Salinero

Rider: Anky van Grunsven.
Country: Netherlands.
Fun fact: Won individual gold medals in both Athens and Beijing, and they also helped nab Netherlands silver in team dressage in 2008.

Randon

Rider: Michal Rapcewicz.
Country: Poland.
Fun fact: Made their Olympic debut in the individual competition in 2008. This year, the duo is part of the first Polish team fielded in dressage since the widely boycotted 1980 Summer Games in Moscow.

Painted Black

Fuego de Cardenas

Rider: Juan Manuel Munoz Diaz.
Country: Spain.
Fun fact: This duo rode in the Beijing Games, but they had their most famous ride at the 2010 World Equestrian Games, where they put on a fan favorite performance, according to Dressage-News.com.

Photo courtesy of the Spanish Equestrian Federation

Delgado

Rider: Beatriz Ferrer-Salat.
Country: Spain.
Fun fact: The Westfalian gelding made a comeback in 2012 after spending two years on the sidelines from a tendon injury.

Edwador

Rider: Katarzyna Milczarek.
Country: Poland.
Fun fact: The 12-year-old stallion and his rider currently rank 30th in the world.

Photo courtesy of the Polish Equestrian Federation

Don Auriello

Rider: Tinne Vilhelmson Silfven.
Country: Sweden.
Fun fact: He’s nicknamed Anton and he stars in a music video, “Who’s Anton?," that previews his freestyle dance to songs from The Who’s rock musical “Tommy.”

Photo courtesy of FEI/Anna Vahakuopus

Scandic

Rider: Patrik Kittel.
Country: Sweden.
Fun fact: He recently debuted his new freestyle dance set to a number of Billy Idol songs including “Rebel Yell,” “Cradle of Love,” “Flesh for Fantasy,” and “Dancing with Myself.” Rider Kittel says the mix “is different, rocky, edgy and fun with a great beat and theme that really fits Scandic.”

Photo courtesy of FEI/ Dirk Caremans

D’Niro

Rider: Jacqueline Brooks.
Country: Canada.
Fun fact: His nick name is Goose “because he flies north for the summer and south for the winter,” Brooks told The Chronicle of the Horse.

Photo used with permission

Breaking Dawn

Rider: Ashley Holzer.
Country: Canada.
Fun fact: He used to be named Ultiems Flemming, but was renamed after one of the books in the “Twilight” series — and his nickname is Edward, after the lead vampire character.

Photo used with permission

Chrevi’s Capital

Rider: David Marcus.
Country: Canada.
Fun fact: Marcus, who was born in Omaha, Neb., became a Canadian citizen in 2011 and the pair first competed together in January 2012.